A New Restaurant

One recurring problem I have seen in restaurants that are struggling is that they do not do a good job of labeling food items in storage.  Te biggest reason restaurants fail is that they don’t control their food costs.  That is a guaranteed kiss of death for a restaurant.  For many food service operations, food cost is the biggest expense they have.  So, if you let your food costs get out of control, all of your profits get eaten up.

A good way to keep track of your food is to use a good labeling system.  The label should list exactly what is in the container, the count or weight of the product, and the date is was put in the storage area.  If you are putting items away in their original containers, they should already be marked with what it is.  If you are storing items that have been removed from the original container, make sure you mark specifically what is in the container.  This is a very good habit to get all of your staff doing, but especially your prep cooks.

If your prep cooks are pre-slicing a ham, the label should state that it is sliced ham, how much ham is in the container, and also tell the weight of the slices.  Just writing “ham” does not tell very much about the product.  Whoever goes into the cooler looking for ham will have to remove the cover in order to see what is in the container, and this increases the risk that the product will not be properly re-covered, especially if the cook is in a hurry.  Not only that, but when you are doing your weekly inventory you will have to take the time to weigh every unlabeled container.

The other thing that should be on every label is the date.  If there is nothing else on the container, make sure it has the date it was received, or prepped.

One rule of inventory control you should follow is FIFO – First in, First Out.  This means that whatever product is received first, it should be used first.  If your products are not properly dated you will have no way of knowing whether or not your stock is being properly rotated, or if the person putting stock away is simply putting the new items in front of the old items.  When this happens the items in the back will go out of date, and that waste will show up as an increase in your food cost.

Even in these hard financial times, it is profit to operate a profitable restaurant, and to be successful.  Keep control of your food cost and you can make it in this business.